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Notes for Members

Notes on Attendance

Rotary expects every Rotarian to spend at least one hour each week in Rotary fellowship. As an extension of this philosophy, all Rotarians are expected to maintain a minimum of 60% attendance (including make-ups) each half year, and also attend at least 30% of the members' own club meetings. Santa Rosa West encourages quality of participation as well as quantity. If a member is absent from our club meeting, the Secretary will report the member as absent. No other assumptions or pre-arrangements can be made. The Santa Rosa clubs no longer report make-ups directly between Secretaries. Make-ups at other club meetings must be personally reported by the member to our club secretary. The official makeup slip is preferred, but the secretary will accept the word of any member if a slip is not available. Authorized make-ups are now permitted two weeks before and two weeks after any meeting missed, so 100% attendance is easily attainable. Make-ups cause cross-fertilization of Rotary ideas as well as friendships and are an opportunity that should not be missed.

In special situations, a member can apply for a "leave of absence" by setting forth the circumstances in a letter to the Secretary. The leave of absence must be approved by the board of directors and be for a specific period of time. During the leave of absence, the member is excused from attendance and the expulsion requirements, but the club is charged with the member's absence.

Recognition: Notes on Member Fines

The Santa Rosa West Bylaws provide for fines or recognition to a maximum of $75.00 per member per year. The $75.00 per member is committed in advance as part of the club annual operating budget. For club cash flow purposes, the $75.00 will be billed to each member in July each year at the same time the annual dues are billed. The member can pay all of the $75.00 in July, or one- half in July and one-half in January. As the President "recognizes" each member during the member recognition portion of the weekly club meetings, the portion of the $75.00 already paid by the member is a credit to the fines as levied by the President. Members are not expected to pay more than the total of $75.00 per year for this purpose. However, members may in their discretion offer to pay more than the annual $75.00 limit for special occasions, such as births of grandchildren, marriages, major promotions, sales of businesses, exotic vacations, etc. These amounts can be given to the club for fellowship purposes, but are often designated by the member as additional contributions to the Rotary International Foundation, the SR West Community Fund, our SOS program, or some current club project.

Once the member has both paid and been fined a total of $75.00, the member is considered a "bleeding heart." As a bleeding heart, the member can pass the fine imposed by the President to another Santa Rosa West member of the member's choice. A member is not a bleeding heart just because he or she has prepaid the annual $75.00, the member must also have been fined by the President an aggregate in excess of $75.00 since July 1st.

Raffle Rules

The Raffle at our regular club meetings has added to the interest of the meeting for both our members and visitors. Pete Hoogland brought the idea of using marbles for the raffle to our club in 1979 when he transferred to our club from the Lawndale club. Two raffle tickets are drawn at each meeting. The winner of the first raffle ticket gets a chance to draw a marble from a bag, and if the marble is of the odd color the monetary pot is won. Originally, we had 52 marbles--one for each week, and raised the pot $10 each week. Later, variations of starting the pot at larger amounts and increasing the pot at $20 each week were employed. It seems that the smallest number of marbles generates the most excitement, and, while the size of the pot is a factor, it is definitely secondary to the excitement of drawing from a small number of marbles. The important thing is the chance to win, not how much one may win.

At the present time, the policy on the raffle, guarantees a 50% pay out to the members and a 50% profit to the club. The bag of marbles starts with only ten marbles, and the pot each week is 50% of the amount of money raised by ticket sales. The pot rolls over each week and grows by 50% of each week's ticket sales. When the odd color marble is selected, the winner is paid and a new pot starts over with 50% of the ticket sales at the next meeting and with ten marbles in the bag. If the bag of marbles gets down to two marbles, and the odd color marble is not selected, the pot rolls over and continues to grow at the next club meeting, but the bag of marbles goes back to ten. Starting July 1, 2001, the raffle will be registered and administered in accordance with California Penal Code section 320.5 which will require registration, annual reporting, and 90% of the gross receipts to be applied to the benefit of charitable purposes in California.